Welcome to our Technique Blog Hop! This month there are 13 of us highlighting Multicolor Motifs as shown on page 110 in the 2011 Autumn/Winter Idea Book! This technique is when you use your markers to apply different colors to the same stamp for a multicolored image.

This blog hop is a circle so you can start wherever you want and continue through to see all the fabulous artwork incorporating this technique. If you are coming from Michelle Battatori’s Blog, you are on the right track!

Exclusive Inks markers make it easy to selectively ink parts of a stamp with different hues. Just apply each ink color using the brush tip of the marker, then stamp on your project for multicolored images. This is such a great technique to add more options to your stamp collection.

TIP: Once you have finished coloring your stamp, “huff” on it before you stamp. This will moisten the ink if it has taken you some time to do the coloring.

It must be the lighting on the first photo because you can see the border of circles just fine in real life. Here is a closeup that shows it better:

I created the circle border with one stamp (that had the multiple circles). To save some time, I first inked the stamp in Baby Pink (my lighter color) then I added Crystal Blue to every other circle using my marker. I used this same technique with the flourish, inking it in pink first and then adding the blue with a marker before stamping. You could also create lighter and darker shades of the same color within a stamp by stamping off the color and then using the marker where you want darker spots before stamping your final image.

Another modification to this technique is to ink only the portion of the stamp that you want (instead of masking!). I did this for the words on my layout and used ink pads instead of markers. I inked the middle word with Baby Pink ink. Some of the pink got on the other words but I didn’t worry about that since it was a lighter color. Then I inked the outer words with the edge of my Crystal Blue ink pad, this time making sure I didn’t get any blue on the word Laugh.

Thanks for stopping by! Please continue on to Bethaney Harlan’s Blog where you will find some additional artwork highlighting this technique! Be sure to leave a comment and let me know what you thought of my variation and happy hopping!

For a list of all the blog hop participants, scroll down to the previous post.

Welcome to the September 2011 Close to My Heart Spotlight Blog Hop! This month we are all using the new Art Philosophy Cricut Collection! This blog hop is a circle so if you are just starting, continue until you make your way back here. If you are coming from Tamytha’s Blog, you are on the right track!

The Art Philosophy Cricut Collection includes: 1 – Cartridge (700 images, font, shapes, and 3-D items), 3 – My Acrylix D-size Stamp Sets, and 3 – 9×12 Dimensional Elements (3 sheets of different shapes) all for the great price of only $99.00 (a retail value of $124.69). This is such a great price as well as a great package. I am loving all the images on the cartridge. It has become a permanent cartridge in my machine.

As much as I love the 3-D options this cartridge provides, I thought I would focus more on the use of the entire collection together. I’m sure you will see many 3-D items throughout the swap. So for you today I have created the same layout twice, one using the Cricut Collection and one without. I used the Main Frame – Charmed pattern out of the Reflections book.

Here’s my standard layout:

And here’s my layout using the cartridge, stamps, and Dimensional Elements in the Art Philosophy Cricut Collection: